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Aug 22, 2016

Skimming over this year's Eisner Award nominees got me rather curious about a number of titles and a related Image sale on comiXology led to me picking up a number of titles. Award nominations and yet another $0.99 sale makes for a rather deadly combination for me indeed.

Among them was the Mark Millar creation Chrononauts, which appealed to me since it was (1) a limited series, (2) about time travel, (3) and with a nice retro feel to it. And while I normally like my comic book art involve cleaner lines, there was something about the rough look of the covers that got me a little nostalgic for the comics of my youth.

It's easier explore limited comic book arcs like this it means I don't have to invest too much to get a full comic book story experience. Plus I like tracking how many books I've read in a year via Shelfari Goodreads and a limited series tends to have a clear definition of beginning and end all nice and neat.Synopsis: Chrononauts is a 6-issue limited comics book series written by Mark Millar with art by Sean Murphy. The comic was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.

The story focuses on two scientists, who finally manage to unlock the secret to time travel. But on the first big test trip with a human being, our scientist friend who took the test is lost in time and contact with the command center is lost. And when the second scientist goes in pursuit of his good friend in order to save him, he discovers that he's not at all in need of saving. And he has an interesting proposal for just what they could accomplish with the ability to travel through time at their disposal.

What I Liked: The book is a clever exploration of time travel take to a level of it being abused. And instead of being on the side of time cops out to police, we have the rogue explorers taken matters into their own hands and thus making the most of what has been given. And while at times the comic can feel pretty gonzo crazy,

There's something about the art that really had me thinking back to like old Dark Horse comics back in the day. Bring in the various cultural references woven into a little time travel narrative and we have some pretty crazy scenes and scenarios that made for fun reading.

What Could Have Been Better: The whole chase aspect to the story does end up with some weird moments that almost felt a little Wacky Races at times as it's chase after chase involving various time-specific conveyances and vehicles in the wrong time-place settings as they keep jumping though time.

The ending of the story is a clever enough effort to create a closed loop that restores the status quo to some extent, but it also felt a little forced or at least it felt like an ending with new true consequences.

TL;DR: Chrononauts is a great little series that explores some crazy ideas about time travel but it doesn't necessarily change lives or move your world. It has a lot o fun moments but it's not necessarily all that complicated, but there's only so much that you can achieve in 6 issues. Thus the comic gets a good 4 terrible abuses of time travel for self-gain out of a possible 5.